SevenSeasJim Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 Posted: 1635 GMT (0035 HKT)KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number, officials said Tuesday.The team at Central Missouri State University, led by associate dean Steven Boone and mathematics professor Curtis Cooper, found it in mid-December after programming 700 computers years ago.A prime number is a positive number divisible by only itself and 1 -- 2, 3, 5, 7 and so on.The number that the team found is 9.1 million digits long. It is a Mersenne prime known as M30402457 -- that's 2 to the 30,402,457th power minus 1.Mersenne primes are a special category expressed as 2 to the "p" power minus 1, in which "p" also is a prime number."We're super excited," said Boone, a chemistry professor. "We've been looking for such a number for a long time."The discovery is affiliated with the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a global contest using volunteers who run software that searches for the largest Mersenne prime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMtn Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Rumour has it that the researchers were so proud of themselves, puffing their chests out, that all of their pocket-protectors broke in half. In the process three of them bent over to pick up the pieces, causing their coke-bottle glasses to fall and break, requiring even more electrical tape to repair them than they already had on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomFoolery Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 I wish I cared enough to read this proof. It seems impossible to me that there is a "largest" prime number given that we can theoretically continue to infinity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomFoolery Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 PS BradM, I'm holding my breath for you to step up with the layman's explanation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMtn Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomFoolery Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 That's layman enough to satisfy me and my poor reading skills... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badams Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Some people have way too much time on their hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazlo Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Fools!The largest prime number is ME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basher Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Those researchers are SO getting laid tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now